If you haven’t already spotted it, this month we are once again working in partnership with Sands Beach Resort in Costa Teguise, Lanzarote to give one lucky fan of our Facebook page a truly fabulous holiday prize – one week, half board at Sands Beach.

Earlier this year TM was lucky enough to spend a few days at this fabulous resort and we were able to check out some of the amazing facilities on offer.

Nestling at the northern edge of Costa Teguise in an enviable position alongside Playa Charco on the shores of a salt water lagoon, some of the apartments and villas of Sands Beach hug the lagoon shoreline so you literally step from your terrace onto the golden beach. Others surround elegant, landscaped plazas with beautiful free form swimming pools at their heart. Elegant, bright, contemporary and spacious the apartments have everything you need to enjoy home from home comfort in the sort of surroundings you wish your full time home occupied. From fully fitted kitchens and stylish lounges to quiet, comfortable bedrooms and oodles of storage space.

Spend your days lazing by the beach or pool before trying one of the daily specials on the sun soaked terrace of the Mai Tai restaurant on Paradise Island while the youngest members of the family are kept occupied and entertained by the tireless Animation Team.

Or opt to try some of the sports and activities on offer. Pop into Papagayo Bikes in reception and get yourself some wheels with which to explore some of your incredible surroundings while you burn off calories to make room for plenty more. Water babies should take advantage of the resort’s partnership with Calipso Diving to discover the stunning clarity and teeming tropical undersea world of Costa Teguise, it’s an experience you’ll never forget. Or you could go hiking, play tennis, work out in the gym, try windsurfing…the possibilities are too numerous to list.

In short, Sands Beach resort is the sort of place where people very happily pay to stay again and again and again.
At the beginning of April we’ll be pulling one name out of the Tenerife Magazine Facebook fans, wouldn’t you like that name to be yours?

With seven alternate tropical universes, why confine yourself to just one Canary Island?
There are less than 230 kilometres and an entire universe of difference between La Palma in the west and Fuerteventura in the east and in between, there are five islands as disparate as any in the Greek archipelago.

So why isn’t island hopping in the Canaries more popular?

Tenerife Magazine decided to find out why.

The Booking Experience.
Armed with a calendar, a notebook and web addresses, I set about planning and booking a Canaries island-hopping trip, taking in some of the smaller islands as well as Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
I began with the traditional island hopping mode –
The Ferry.
For the Western Islands, I decided to use The Fred Olsen Express as it’s quicker than Naviera Armas.
It wasn’t long before I was running aground…the online booking site wouldn’t let me buy my tickets if I had the ‘schedules’ window open. Fine if you’re just planning a single crossing, but very frustrating if you’re trying to plan several trips. I had to keep switching views to check out which days ferries operated between the smaller islands and then going back to online sales to check times and prices.
Next I tried Naviera Armas to get around the eastern Islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote as Fred Olsen doesn’t sail to them. At least they have a neat little map which shows exactly where they sail from and to but again, I had to constantly switch between ‘destination times’ and ‘passenger sales’ views making multiple bookings a very convoluted affair.

The Airlines
With some ferry crossings taking a whole day and limited sailings between smaller islands, I decided to check out the inter-island air services. On Binter Airlines’ website the flight schedules were easy to search, there were lots of flights to choose from and they gave me loads of options around my travel dates which made for easy planning. Although the Islas Airways services are restricted to the bigger islands, I actually found their site to be the easiest and most user-friendly of all for online booking.

Costs and journey times
The rule is simple; the faster you get there, the more it costs you; so flying is the fastest and most expensive way to connect the islands.
Ferries are cheaper but then they’re also considerably slower and in the case of Naviera Armas, so slow as to not be a viable option on some journeys, like Tenerife to El Hierro which takes a staggering 8hr and 30 mins and is generally the domain of farmers and their goats – both of whom are better sailors than I am.

Using Tenerife to Gran Canaria (one way) as my example, I discovered substantial differences between prices and journey times:

Naviera Armas     €30.41     2½ hours
Fred Olsen         €47.63    1 hour
Binter Canarias     €60.85     30 mins
Islas Airways     €64.35    30 mins

All the journeys I checked out had similar time/cost differences where all four carriers operate.
But services are restricted between some islands, which incidentally, I only found out by trying to book certain routes and being shown the blank ‘done’ screen.
For example, Fred Olsen doesn’t operate between Gran Canaria and Lanzarote or Fuerteventura.
Binter Airlines don’t fly direct between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura or between La Gomera and La Palma or El Hierro; and Islas Airways only operate between Tenerife, La Palma, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.
It’s all very confusing, means endless internet searching and no easy way to hop between islands.

So – Why Isn’t Island Hopping in the Canaries a Popular Option?

None of the carriers, either sea or air, offer discounts for multiple trips. There are special offers running from time to time but they usually only apply to residents who already enjoy substantial discounts on travel. As the bus services on all the islands offer a multiple trip card with substantial discounts, why can’t the ferries and airlines do the same?

For anyone planning to visit several islands, online booking either from home or while on the move is the most sensible option, but I found ferry online booking sites to be cumbersome and definitely not user-friendly for island hoppers. Why can’t the ferries offer multiple trip planning and booking?

Although both Fred Olsen and Naviera Armas operate free ferry buses between capital city and ports on Tenerife, (Fred Olsen also operates ferry buses on Gran Canaria and Lanzarote), the bus doesn’t pick up or drop off at the airports.

The end result is this: As a tourist, the costs of visiting multiple islands is either prohibitively expensive if you choose to do it by air; tiresomely slow if you opt for the more cost-effective ferries or painfully unconnected if you choose to mix and match.

Until the inter-island services wake up to the possibilities of island hopping and offer discounts on multiple trips; better connectivity between ports, bus stations and airports; and online booking services that allow users to plan multiple trips, I guess island hopping in the Canaries will remain about as popular as the norovirus.

The words “shame”, “wasted” and “opportunity” come to mind.

Drum roll, dramatic pause for breath, and yes Debbie Schilling, you are the winner of a fabulous holiday at Sands Beach Resort Hotel, Lanzarote. Debbie’s name was drawn out from 410 Tenerife Magazine Facebook members to be the winner of our first competition.

Pick yourself off the floor Debbie, we don’t know much about you except you are living in Spain, we would love to know more and to find out all your plans for the holiday. You can contact us via john@tenerifemagazine.com or phone (0034) 639702649, either way we look forward to hearing from you to make all the arrangements.

This is just the start, we will have more competitions at Tenerife Magazine in the near future, so keep checking in, and spread the word, get your friends to join our Facebook group, and next time, maybe they could be a winner. Even if you don’t win, there are always some great articles to give you lowdown on life in Tenerife.